Coss recuses himself from Jacobs' lawsuit

Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss has filed an entry recusing himself from hearing a civil case between the Highland County commissioners and the former director of Highland County Children Services.

Additionally, the commissioners have filed a motion with the court asking that the case be dismissed.

Wendy Jacobs filed suit against the commissioners in April, alleging she was wrongfully terminated from her position with Highland County’s Department of Job and Family Services/Child Support Enforcement and Child Protective Agency.

Jacobs alleges that the defendants “were willful, wanton and malicious in nature.”

She is asking for full reinstatement and damages to be determined at trial, including: “Lost pay and benefits resulting from the termination of employment; compensatory damages; punitive damages; pre-and post-judgment interest and expenses incurred in the investigation and prosecution of this action...”

She had been the director of Highland County Children Services from September 2007, until the commissioners merged the agency with the Highland County Department of Job and Family Services in 2011, and disbanded the children services board.

In an entry filed in the Highland County Clerk of Courts office on June 7, Coss recused himself. By general assignment appointment by the Supreme Court, Judge Dale Crawford will now hear the case.

In an entry filed by the commissioners’ attorneys Jeffrey Stankunas and Aaron Glasglow, of the Columbus firm Isaac, Brant, Ledman and Teetor, LLP, on May 25, the county asks that the court render a judgment on the following issues: that Jacobs’ complaint fails to plead a sufficient “clear public policy” to support a claim for wrongful termination under Ohio law, and that she “was not charged, discharged or disciplined for a reason that is prohibited by statute;” and that she “fails to plead that she was fired for a prohibited reason in violation of public policy where she specifically claims that her employer had decided to terminate her employment before any of the ‘public policy’ related conduct occurred.”

In the memorandum supporting the defense motion, the county claims that Jacobs was an at-will, probationary employee at the time of her termination.

An at-will employee, according to the memorandum, can only bring a wrongful termination suit when the “employee is fired for a reason that is prohibited by law.”

A response by Jacobs’ attorney, Stephen Simon, has not yet been filed with the court.